Abstract
The antennal nervous system of the grasshopper Schistocerca gregaria comprises two parallel pathways projecting to the brain, each pioneered early in embryogenesis by a pair of sibling cells located at the antennal tip. En route, the growth cones of pioneers from one pathway have been shown to contact a guidepost-like cell called the base pioneer. Its role in axon guidance remains unclear as do the cellular guidance cues regulating axogenesis in the other pathway supposedly without a base pioneer. Further, while the tip pioneers are known to delaminate from the antennal epithelium into the lumen, the origin of this base pioneer is unknown. Here, we use immunolabeling and immunoblocking methods to clarify these issues. Co-labeling against the neuron-specific marker horseradish peroxidase and the pioneer-specific cell surface glycoprotein Lazarillo identifies not only the tip pioneers but also a base pioneer associated with each of the developing antennal pathways. Both base pioneers co-express the mesodermal label Mes3, consistent with a lumenal origin, whereas the tip pioneers proved Mes3-negative confirming their affiliation with the ectodermal epithelium. Lazarillo antigen expression in the antennal pioneers followed a different temporal dynamic: continuous in the tip pioneers, but in the base pioneers, only at the time their filopodia and those of the tip pioneers first recognize one another. Immunoblocking of Lazarillo expression in cultured embryos disrupts this recognition resulting in misguided axogenesis in both antennal pathways.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Drs. Sanchez and Ganfornina for the gift of the Lazarillo antibody, Dr. Goodman for the gift of the Mes3 antibody, and Dr. Bastiani for the gift of the Lachesin antibody. Michaela Güntner assisted with the antibody block experiments and Tatjana Kleele assisted with the HRP/Lachesin co-labeling. E.E. Ehrhardt is supported by the Graduate School of Systemic Neuroscience, University of Munich.
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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Communicated by Siegfried Roth
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Ehrhardt, E., Liu, Y. & Boyan, G. Axogenesis in the antennal nervous system of the grasshopper Schistocerca gregaria revisited: the base pioneers. Dev Genes Evol 225, 39–45 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-014-0485-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-014-0485-9